Under the prior art, the application of upholstery to furniture structures has required significant manual labor. For example, upholstered folding chairs commonly require the preliminary attachment of upholstery to a separate backing structure, such as a laminated wood panel. That backing structure is then fixed to a chair hack or frame by, for example, mechanical fasteners, such as staples, screws, rivets, or the like.
It is a recognized problem that such attachment methods lead to an aesthetically flawed appearance in the resulting article of furniture. Fasteners are often unavoidably left exposed, and the application of the fasteners to the backing structure commonly results in unattractive and potentially dangerous damage and splintering of the backing structure. Furthermore, edges of the upholstery fabric can be left undesirably visible. Even further, the exposed fasteners and fabric edges can be vulnerable to damage and tampering.
On a more general level, it will be appreciated that, for each given upholstery application, numerous furniture upholstery options are possible, including with respect to color, texture, material type, and other characteristics. Similarly, multiple frame, seat, back, and other structural options are typically available to each manufacturer. Accordingly, manufacturers are commonly faced with the competing goals of providing as wide a range as possible to suppliers and consumers while limiting the number of pieces of inventory required for achieving the same.
The present inventor has recognized that providing an expedient mechanism for securely attaching a hacking structure to a furniture member, whether a chair hack or chair frame, would represent an important step toward enabling the simultaneous accomplishment of the competing goals of limiting necessary inventory while enabling widely varied upholstery options. It would also be desirable to provide such a mechanism that allows the coupling of a backing structure to a chair member without a need for specialized tools. Still further, it would be advantageous to enable a non-destructive separation of a backing structure in relation to a chair member to facilitate cleaning, repair, replacement, or the like.